Everytime Tim Schafer creates a game, I know it will be a blast. Having been on a roll starting with The Day of the Tentacle up through The Grim Fandango, each game has been delightfully intelligent, creative and an overall wonderful experience. Psychonauts is no different. In fact, it is one of the best games I have played not only this year but in a long time.
The setup is that there is a camp for psychic children who feel different in the outside world. At the camp, the counselors teach children how to harness their power to become Psychonauts, psychics who actually enter people's minds and sort out their problems. Because of this setup, each and every world is completely different from the others. Connected to a hub world of the camp, each real "level" is a person's mind. And each mind reflects the person's personality, fears, phobias etc. For instance, the beginning level is that of your drill instructor. His level is a warzone complete with mines, air plane drops, explosions, barbed wire etc.
Tim Schafer's touch is also evident in the characters who are actually characters. They all have a personality and are very emotive. I haven't laughed at a video game so hard since Conker's Bad Fur Day. This game is hillarious. From the kid who practices looking through a peep hole in the day to get practice for when it's filled with girls to trashing a town Godzilla style, the game has it in spades. However, there are some surprisingly disturbing moments in the game that are also darkly humorous. Because you have psychic powers, you also can do some pretty cool stuff from pyrokinesis, telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, etc. These moves help you progress through the levels and pick up hidden items throughout the game.
Graphically, the game is awesome on the Xbox. The levels are done in vivid colors and with a wonderful cartoon style. The campground seems alive as there are creatures walking your path. From squirrels, crows, pigeons, lizards, bears, etc, the world seems populated and just feels real. You can tell a lot of time and effort was put in to make this game come alive and it works. The game is presented in 480p, for those interested.
Aurally, the characters are voiced to perfection. Some great voice actors have been employed and it really helps create characters that are lovable. The only audio glitch I've noticed is that sometimes my speakers will "click" as voices come in or as the sound changes sometimes. The game is also presented in 5.1 surround in game.
Since the game is a platformer, all of the standards apply. In the real world and in each person's mind, there are a ton of things to collect. In the real world, there are arrowheads that can be pulled from the ground that represent cash. There is a scavenger hunt also going on that will earn you rank (which gives you new powers) and there are cards that can be formed as more rank. In each person's mind, there are also different things to collect such as emotional baggage, mental cobwebs, figments of the imagination and safes which you much punch open to reveal some of the person's past. Some of these slide shows are funny and some are actually kind of sad as you see how these people came to be who they are. I list these items to collect just as a note that the game definitely exhibits all of the charms of a platformer. But there actually is a reason to collecting everything and they fit together in this humorous world.
The game moves quickly and besides one or two intstances of panning that had the game do a wave type pattern, it is perfect. My recommendation if you play the game is to take your time talking to everyone. It helps flesh out the story and if you listen and keep making rounds after each world you will see minor breakups, makeups, humorous instances involving squirrels who tell one kid to kill everyone, and plain funny dialogue. Take your time with this one and you will definitely be rewarded.
This game is great, it's just what I was looking for. It helped remind me why I play video games. When a person can create such wonderful worlds and allow you to play in them, you realize why you play games. It is so creative. Where else can you be chased by a giant fish, rage across town as a Godzilla-like creature, be in a disco world where you must race, pin-ball style, wage war against a Napolean complex and set fire to squirrels? If you want a creative and fun video game that will take approximately 10-15 hours of your time, then this is definitely a must buy. Sure some say the game is too easy and relies on platforming cliches but honestly when you are having this much fun, does it really matter? Why quibble over small faults when you will genuinely have a complete and utter blast playing the game? I absolutely cannot recommend this game enough. And unfortunately, it's one of those games that will end up like Ico or Beyond Good and Evil where no one hears of it and no one plays it. Don't let that happen. Play this game because its games like this that the industry needs to keep creating.
A must buy. Creative and excellent.
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Psychonauts was purchased solely on the Tim Schafer name. I loved Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and of course the Monkey Island range and so picked up this game as soon as I could without reading a single review.
First Impressions
After sitting through the various fun cut sequences (useful in getting you aclimated to the weird style of the people in the game), I was off. The initial control method borrows heavily from 3D platformers such as Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Kazooie and of course the Mario franchise and so whilst I felt at home when controlling Raz (the main character), I was somewhat concerned this game was nothing more than 'another' platformer.
But the game was fun and had lots of collecting so I plodded on in the apparent cutsy world of Psychonauts... As the game progresses, however, a much darker more interesting story unfolds. One which has you jumping into people's minds where you see their fragmented thoughts and the vaulted scary emotional baggage contained inside. This, along with the unique fighting control had me hooked. Sure I wanted to collect everything and there's lots of collecting to do but I also was genuinely fascinated by how the story was going to play out.
Controls
Psychonauts uses the usual third-person control of left thumbstick for movement and right thumbstick for camera. You can assign your offensive moves from a skillset of 'psych' powers to the R, white and black buttons. Fans of Zelda's Wind Waker will recognize that tidy way of ensuring you have the essential fighting tools to hand when you need them. Aside from the occasional auto-camera fubar, the controls are solid.
Graphics
Now this is where things get interesting. This game has some of the most varied and colorful graphics I've seen. When you get to the Matador's mind you'll see what I mean; it's like someone put a blacklight in my TV. And since a large portion of the game is played out inside people's minds the game is freed from logical imagery or even realistic forces (such as gravity). A guard that you enter has this bizarre paranoid mind for example; it's a rolling upside down/sideways forward world that's amazing to play on and so good to look at. I really cannot fault the in game graphics or the unique style. My only complaint on this front is most of the cut scenes are in-game rendered (that's good), but one or two are movies still using the game's engine. When these sequences appear it has the graininess of obvious compression and can break the spell of playing. Small point though.
Sound
What you'd expect in a zany game ochestral one minute and Benny Hill the next. Sound effects are put to good use and the voice over acting is stunning. Everything fits perfectly.
Overall
I love this game. I'm not done with it I'm about 70% in and I've been playing for 12 hours or so. I have taken the time to try to get a lot of the collecting done so if you whiz through it, it may be a quick affair. But this game deserves to be savoured no other platformer on the XBox has this depth, humor and gameplay. It's got everything it's a text adventure, a platformer, a shooter, a pinball game and a movie and it all blends perfectly. The puzzles are harder than the end of level bosses and that's the way it should be -there is no button mashing to win in this game. It's on par with epic game's such as Zelda Ocarina or Mario 64... and if these sorts of games appeal to you then you'd be doing yourself an injustice by not buying this one!
Best Deals for Psychonauts - Xbox
Let me start off this review by saying that I play a lot of different videogames, and owe allegiance to no genre in specifics, which is why I'm not going to compare this game to others. There are a variety of aspects that the game has which make it awesome, and I will cover these individually, in seperate paragraphs.
First off, creativity. This is not a spoiler, so have no fear as I progress. The game revolves around a ten year old child with psychic abilities by the name of Razputin, or "Raz". Without his parent's knowledge, Raz sneaks into Whispering Rocks Psychic Summer camp, a secret government training facility for young psychics. Once discovered by the camp counsellors, he is informed that his parents have been called, and will pick him up in a couple of days. Until then, he is not allowed to participate in any psychic training or activities. Of course, this doesn't stop our young adventurer from doing exactly that, and this is where the game begins. The game invites you to actually explore other character's minds, usually to help them solve an internal problem (frequently due to insanity), and each of the levels creatively reflect that character's problems. For example, you are invited into the mind of Fred, a distant relative of Napoleon, who has a split personality disorder as a result of continually losing strategy games to one of the inmates at the asylum. As you enter his head to kick Napoleon out and restore Fred's sovereignty of his mind, you are invited to play a game of strategy versus Napoleon's embodiment in Fred's mind.
Humor: I have to admit that I have been particular to Tim Schafer's sense of humor ever since playing Grim Fandango, and this game made me laugh a lot. For instance, at one point in the game you find yourself in the mind of a former high school wrestler. The walls inside the sewers of his mind are decorated with high school lockers, and one passageway is designed as a gym shower room, at which Raz remarks "Man, I feel like I'm back in High School...Which is wierd, because I'm only ten years old" The game is full of clever little side comments which make the game a blast to play, and the interactions with the other characters are constantly amusing (My favorite character is a psychic camper by the name of Mikhail, who is from Russia and has an obsession with finding a hairless bear)
Gameplay: I like the style of gameplay a lot. This is one of the first platformers I've played in a long time that seems to actually get everything right. If it's possible, you just have to try. If it's not possible, then there's no way to hack around it until you're supposed to. Some games tend to screw this up and allow the impossible, and it's nice to play a game that has a good environment to it. Moving on, the control system is nice. You move with the left analog, adjust the view with the right analog. You can assign three psychic powers (out of a possible 8) to hot buttons, and the game pauses while you assign them (you assign by pushing right on the d-pad). You can pull items out of your backpack, which never gets full (which doesn't break realism because at any given time you only have a max of something like 13 items of small-medium size). The game allows double jumping, which I usually think is cheap, but Psychonauts excuses it by defining it as an innate psychic ability which can be improved once you get the active psychic ability "levitate". The only thing I disliked about the gameplay was the fact that when you tried to target things, you had to be fairly close to your target, which seems silly when the main reason you would target something in Psychonauts is to use a ranged weapon like Psi Blast.
Sound/Music: This game has an awesome soundtrack. Every mind you invade seems to have the perfect music written for it, from the Mexican-themed "Black Velvetopia", to the Godzilla-like "Lungfishopolis". I'm not really an expert on describing music, which is why this part is going to be short, but let it be known that the music is just as awesome as the rest of the game, I just can't describe it owing to my own deficiencies.
Graphics: This game uses the xbox's graphical potential fully. I experienced no lag at all while playing, and yet could see clearly that everything was richly textured, high on polys, and gorgeous to look at. The graphical style is a little cartoony, which is something that I love in videogames, but I understand it is an acquired taste, so that is something you should definitely be aware of. In addition, each mind uses the game's graphics slightly differently, and gameplay varies a lot from mind to mind. For example, the earlier mentioned "Black Velvetopia" has a somewhat inverted color scheme, as if the world was being viewed under a blacklight.
So here we go with a final summary, which is probably the only thing most of you readers will read anyways.
Creativity: 10
Humor: 9.5
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8.8
Graphics: 10
Overall: 9.5 This game is one of the best games I've ever played, and is one of the best out there for xbox. Get it! :)
Honest reviews on Psychonauts - Xbox
I'm a huge Tim Schaeffer fan, no one makes games like he does. Grim Fandango, Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle...Schaeffer was the king of the adventure game.
And then adventure games went away. Our loss, really.
So Mr. Schaeffer has been working on this gem instead, and I've got to say, the humour is still there even though this is a platformer. Do not rush through this game, talk to everyone. There's an awful lot of detail to this game, and a lot of laughs, but you have to talk to the people...you know, as you would in real life.
Anyway, Psychonauts is a quirky story about a camp of young psychics training to become Psychonauts. A psychonaut can enter another persons mind and help with things like emotional baggage, mental cobwebs, and uncover damage to that persons psyche. What makes this so great is every time you enter another persons mind, the reality of that person is reflected in the environment you walk around. The military guys brain is a warzone, there's a paranoid milkman whose brain is like all the conspiracy theories you've ever read wrapped into one universe.
Hard to explain, but a joy to play. It saddens me that there's only a few reviews out there, but if you're looking for a really fun platformer on the Xbox, there's none better.
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This is great news for people wanting to play this game on their next-gen, hi-def Xbox console! However, to get the emulator code for it, as well as many other Xbox games, the easiest way to do it would be to: make sure you have a CD or DVD burner, log on to type in the Search bar, "Backwards Compatibility", and find the article that says "Backwards Compatibility FAQ, which is a little step-by-step section that'll take you to burning all the emulator codes on to the CD and updating them on your Xbox 360 console.
Getting to the game, this is the most fun I've had for so long; a great platformer that's fresh, original, and really funny! End of story.
